Suzanne asked me to start a new thread about men quilting since my hubby has started quilting. He made a quilt this fall and is in the process of working on one right now. He is thinking of sending this one to Project Linus.

Here are the questions Suzanne asked.. with my answers and comments..

Has he always sewed? How did you get him interested or did he interest you?

This is the first time he has sewn.. but he has been involved in sewing for a long time. His older sister was a home-ec major and sewed all through highschool and beyond. She put him to work helping her with projects.. usually holding something for her or helping her cut fabric.

After we got married, he encouraged me when I decided to do some sewing and he helped me... same with quilting. He is an architect and very creative and precise. We made a bedspread years ago for our son out of plaid fabric and D cut and pinned it and then I sewed it. When I started quilting, he helped cut fabric and ironed it for me and would brain storm with me when I couldn't decide what to do. I suggested he try to make a quilt and he said no.. he didn't want to fool with the machine.

Does he machine piece or piece by hand?

He does it all on the machine... not sure he would tackle handwork.

Do each of you have youra own machines?

I have 2 machines... he is using my old Kenmore.

Does he have his own stash of fabrics?

We share.. sort of.. he did purchase some specific fabrics for his first quilt and then used things from my stash. For the most part he only used scraps. The quilt he is making now is all from scraps. He wouldn't use anything without asking first.. in case I have it planned for something else.

I would love it if my husband were more interested that just praising my work.

There is good and bad in it for me... more good than bad. DH is very talented and his first quilt was.. to me.. amazing for a first. Much better than my first one! So he will quickly pass me in expertease. One thing that bothers me at times.. when he decided to make his first quilt, he pretty much sat down and did it. I mean he went to work and all, but he used all his free time to work on that quilt. I can't do that. I have too many other things to do. So I was a bit envious of that.

Someone mentioned they didn't think they would like it if their hubby quilted... I have had mixed feelings at times about it BUT he thoroughly enjoys it and it is very relaxing for him. He has a very high pressured job, so I am glad for that he has a way to relax and also to express his creativity. We have helped each other a bit with projects and are planning a joint project or two this year... I think that will be fun. We tend to be one of those couples who like to do things together a lot.

Barb C

Barb

That is great, You do things together, and even
quilt together, He sounds very focused when he starts a quilt, I'm sure( he) being a male sees things from a different approach, and is a big help on certain areas. As I'm sure you are a big help to him. It's like you can throw ideas to him and he can throw his ideas at you and then you can critque them together. I think it's really great.

Hmmmm...I keep encouraging my significant other to test-drive the new machine. He's no stranger to the sewing room. He's hung pegboards and corkboards in there for me. And he knows his way around the rulers and rotary cutters, the cutting mats and such. Not sure he'll cross the line and do some stitching anytime soon. Too bad. I think he's got really creative ideas! :wink:

Leslee, same here. My husband is a great cook because he doesn't know what the rules are. I think he would make great quilts. He is a great helper when I can keep my mouth shut. I try to tell him he can't do it that way, and not only does he prove me wrong, it always turns out better than it would have. Both of my sons quilt a little, and are very uninhibited.

My husband is always interested in looking at my quilt projects, but I haven't been able to get him to try quilting.

Barb,
I have been a bit distracted recently and just found your thread today. Thank you for telling us about your quilting partner. My husband is not very creative, just a great cheerleader and is good at so many other things. Our one son sews but not much as much as he used to. He appreciates quilts so maybe someday. . .
My favorite designer is a very talanted fellow, Robert Callaham.
Suzanne

My husband knows what a fat quarter is. He can also identify a rotery cutter and a cutting matt and aspool of thread, He carries my machine to and from the car,but getting him interested in quilting???

Mary in Louisiana

I know we have some men on this forum. Let's hear from you!! How did you get interested in quilting and do you have pics? :D

Come on, men. Speak up please. We'd love to hear more from you.

Minda

My husband loves quilting, and is responsible for converting me from thinking sewing machines were evil, torture inducing machines into a quilting fanatic! :mrgreen:

Sadly, he hasn't had time in the last few years to quilt, but I'm forever grateful to him for getting me hooked... and supplying me with tools. LOL

What do you want to hear?

I quilt... so I am. I also repair machines, program robots, build furniture, cook very well, eat even better, grow strange peppers and tomatoes, plant iris, don't beat my kids, and am an overall nice guy.

tim in san jose

My father passed away in 1990. He worked at a sewing factory (Harwood) in Virginia just after WW II. Learned to sew pajamas, shirts, light jackets. Also crocheted. 6'3" and a "man's man", stone mason, bricklayer, carpenter, jack of all trades.

When my son returned home after 5 years in Coast Guard, the first thing he asked for ...to carry to his own place ... was the quilt his grandfather made for him when he was 8 or 9 years old.

Retired 2 years ago and now hooked on quilting.

You go guys
kathy

My husband is not a quilter but appreciates anything I do in the line of needlework. In fact whenever I finish something he asks me if I'm going to submit it for the county fair. He has other hobbies and is good at things I can not do. However, I do have 2 grandsons that quilt. One is 13 and has attended several kids quilting camps that Joann's fabric runs during the summer months. He lives in OH so I can't help him much but he does very well. His 12 year old cousin who is only about 90 miles away from us asked me to teach him how to quilt. Before he was able to get down to my house his other grandmother helped him with a lap quilt. Since then I helped him with a quilted pillow and he's now working on a scrap lap quilt whenever he comes down for a visit. He doesn't have access to a sewing machine at home and doesn't visit too often so it's slow going, but that's OK, too. His quilt pieces are here in a plastic box waiting for him whenever he comes. I do the cutting with the rotary cutter for him.

It's strange but I don't have any daughters or granddaughters but two of my grandsons have expressed this interest in quilting as well as learning how to knit and to do xstitch. So I still have the fun of teaching someone.

Judyjo

A photo of my unfinished quilt. Since then I have added a dark wine-red border. The top is ready for pinning. Please excuse my messy 'studio'.

tim in san jose

Tim, after you clean your room put that picture in the picture section so everyone will know where it is. Now be a good boy and finish that quilt. By the way... Nice job I really like the colors.
kathy

Love it!! Another way to use up scraps!

judyjo

Tim, I love the fabrics you picked. You did a great job, and are proof of my theory that men are great quilters because of the masculinity that is expressed in their quilts. We are all artists inside.

Judyjo,

Since it's my first quilt, no wait, my first sewing project, there are no scraps in it. It started as a lap quilt made from Kaffe Fassett stripes and dark red, gray, and navy solids. I figured it would probably be the only quilt I ever made so when I started cutting fabric, I started to ummm... expand it. I found more of the original KF fabric and added some other striped and patterned cloth to it. There is a whimsey or two also thrown in. The quilt top is now 102x108 inches. There are 100 9x9 inch (finished) blocks in the basic design. It is sized for a tall queen bed with a lot of overhang.

tim in san jose

Tim,
That is a very good looking quilt . . . way to go! If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about your 'messy' studio . . . most of the time my 'sewing room' looks about the same or perhaps on some days even messier.

Marion
in Vermont

Tim, I love the colors you chose. Great quilt!!!

Great quilt top. I have made the YBR several times. It is a fun pattern and I find it very forgiving! Barb C

I will probably never make it again. I like it but not that much. I am an engineer and took the blocks I had made and a CAD (Computer Aided Design) program and figured our how not to have any seams meet outside any block. I then don't have to worry about seams lining up from block to block. Have you taken any photos of your quilts?


tim in san jose

I have photos of all of my quilts on my webshots page (URL below my signature).

My husband has also started quilting. He has completed 1 quilt, 1 top and is working on another one now.

Barb C

Tim....there are so many colors in this quilt I was positive it was a scrap quilt. Sorry bout that. It is beautiful!!! As for the messy room...how can you quilt and not have a messy room or work area??

Judyjo

How can I breath and not have a messy work area?

tim

So I see (about YBR). You must like it. Nice collection of quilts and tell the old man his quilt is.. NICE!

I put in several hours today on my Dazzler Quilt. Seems there are several hundred triangle squares to do. I am about 3/4 of the way through them. Am I nuts or what?

tim in san jose

I usually try to work on my hand quilting at least one hour at a time which really doesn't get very far (I'm quilting 1/4" inside all seams and there are a lot of little pieces) so last nite my sweet husband offered to help.That was my first clue that something was up but I accepted anyway because I do enjoy working with him when he's building something. He came back with the electric staple gun and asked where to start. Needless to say I'll be working ALONE!
kathy

Tim, I went back and looked at your quilt again after reading what you did with the CAD program. It's great. You wrote in a previous post that you thought this would be the only quilt you would make. Is that still true now that you've actually worked on making a quilt?

Oh, Kathy's story reminds me of one! A woman's husband offered to help her with the quilting part, said he'd thread the needles. She thought this was wonderful...right up until she realized he'd taken a ruler and measured where each small straight line of quilting would go along each edge of a triangle and threaded individual needles with exactly that length of thread! :lol:

Leslee, someone that focused on detail would be a pain to work with anyway. That woman should count her blessings. :lol:

Of course not! There are two in the works past the unfinished original one, and I have all the fabric for another. It's all your fault, this obsession. I don't know how, but it is.

tim in san jose (in the middle of 288 half triangle squares)(am I nuts?)

I have 2 nephew that love to help tie tack quilts. They want to watch from beginning to end. The whole process, even if it takes all day. They are 8 and 11. They have taught me that my ideas about certain things being gender-specific is wrong. I encourage them and hope to help them out when they are ready to start their own projects.

Melissa

I realize I'm in the minority, but I am glad that my husband doesn't quilt. I think it's important for couples to have shared interests, but also individual interests. My husband of almost 33 years loves his computer, science fiction, nature, photography and more. I think that's great and I share his love of nature, but my quilting time is my own. We both lead busy lives, and we both need time to ourselves. He knows what projects I'm working on, and I discuss colors and fabrics with him. He encourages me to be creative, but he realizes that this is "my thing". Sometimes he teases me about how many projects I have going at once, I told him I need to quit my job so I can get everything done and do more! He cares so much about my need for my own space, that when I teasingly told him I needed a sewing room, he decided to finish a room in our basement for me. Now all my quilting, cross-stitch, crochet is there, waiting for me to play with it whenever I get the chance. We may not share the same hobbies but we do share our love for each other, our children, and grandchildren.

Hi Julie....My husband and I also have very different hobbies but are very supportive of each other. Knowing our personalities, I don't think I'd be happy if he were quilting along with me. Everytime I complete a project, quilting or xstitch he wants to know if I'm going to submit it to the county fair. He is very proud of whatever I do. On the other hand when he does some of his writing for his fishing magazine it does need editing and I'm all too happy to do it. He has terrific ideas but needs help with the grammar, spelling, etc. Our one common ground is our 3 boys and our 4 grandsons and our love of the outdoors.

judyjo

I am loving reading about all the men who are quilting!! That's awesome....maybe someday I can get my hubby to try his hand at it....but I doubt it!! LOL
Tim, that quilt is beautiful!!
Gay

I don't think you are in the minority. I wasn't thrilled when my husband started quilting. I wasn't sured I would like enjoying my hobby, but it has been fun and we work on separate projects. Quilting is far from our only hobby / pasttime... we have lots of individual interests that we don't share. I agree that couples need that individual time.

Barb

Tim, What other quilts are you working on? I have about 15 UFOs that I'm going to try and finish this year. I'm glad I am not suffering quilt obsession alone! :lol:

Minda,

Right now I am putting 288 squares face together, sewing the 1/4 inch offsets, and getting ready to slice the diagonal for 288 2 1/2 inch triangle pairs. One side is deep dark chocolate brown, the other is a red/green/yellow diamond print (hard to imagine but it's very nice). These go into a quilt called dazzler. I am making it especially for a newly purchased headboard/footboard for our bed. This piece of furniture is deep dark walnut, about 120 years old, and the headboard is 7 feet 2 inches tall. Solid walnut. The Significant Other (SO) doesn't know about this quilt.

The next one after that is called Homeward Bound from a McCalls Quilting magazine from last fall. I am not doing it all in batiks like the author did, but have carefully selected pairs of patterned fabrics to make the hundreds of different sized flying geese this quilt requires.

The last quilt I have most of the fabric for is called latilla (sp?). a southwestern motif, it involves sewing strips of fabric on a muslin base at a 60 degree angle in long strips. I'll put the long strips together with some more of that dark chocolate fabric (unless I find something I like better).

Other than that, the SO wants me to work on her "Out of Darkness" block of the month quilt that's been sitting around for a number of years. Problem is, I don't do flowers. We will see.

tim in san jose

Tim, I think it's time to expand your horizons. What'cha got against flowers? Hmm? It's good to work outside your comfort zone once in awhile. That's what they say. I have to admit, I'm not sure though. I hated it! But flowers are good. Listen to you SO. Try it...You'll like it! :P

It does sound as if you'll be a tad tied up for a while with all those little triangles. Wow! That's going to be an awesome quilt. And it sounds as if you have the perfect bed to display it on. Be sure to post pictures. We're all waiting to see! :-D